This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Along one edge of your screen (the bottom, left, or right) is a colorful row
of icons known as the Dock. The Dock, shown in its default state in Figure
3.1, acts as a taskbar to show open applications and minimized or reduced versions
of a document window. It also offers quick access to favorite applications,
shows feedback from open applications, and provides a resting place for the
Trash.

Remember: To minimize a document, you can click the yellow (center) button
at the top left of each window. You can also minimize by double-clicking
the window’s title bar if you’ve checked that option under the
Appearance settings of the System Preferences.

Trash—At the extreme right (or bottom) is the Trash, the place to
drag files that you want to throw away.

NOTE

You can also drag URLs into the right (or bottom) side of the Dock. A single
click launches your default Web browser and opens it to the saved address.

Separator bar—The separator bar splits the Dock into the application
and file/folder areas.

NOTE

To make the icons in the Dock larger or smaller, click the separator bar
and then move the mouse up to increase the size or down to reduce it if positioned
horizontally, or move it left and right if your Dock is positioned vertically.

Applications and the Dock

The left (or top) portion of the Dock contains all docked and currently
running applications.

To launch an application whose icon is in the Dock, just click its icon once,
and your computer takes it from there. When you launch an application that
isn’t in the Dock, its icon then appears in the Dock.

As the application launches, you’ll see the icon bounce. When opened, a
small triangle appears with its icon to show that it is running—as you can
see with the first icon on the left in Figure
3.1. When you quit or close the
application, the triangle disappears. (For applications that haven’t been
set to remain in the Dock, the icon also disappears from the Dock.)

To switch between active applications, just click the icon in the Dock that
you want to become the active application. You can also switch between open
applications by holding down Command-Tab. This moves you through active
applications in the Dock in the order in which they appear. When you reach the
item you want to bring to the front, release the keys to select it.

NOTE

Dropping is a shortcut for opening document files in a specific
application. To drop a file, you can drag and drop a document icon on top of the
icon of the application in which you want it to open. In Mac OS X, you can use
the application’s Dock icon instead of having to locate the original
application file on your hard drive.

Also, to force a docked application to accept a dropped document that it
doesn’t recognize, hold down Command-Option when holding the document over
the application icon. The application icon is immediately highlighted, enabling
you to perform your drag-and-drop action. (Keep in mind, however, that many
applications can work with files in only certain formats—forcing an
application to open something it doesn’t have the capacity to read
won’t get you very far!)

Adding and Removing Docked Applications

You can add applications to the left side (or top) of the Dock to create a
quick launching point, no matter where the software is located on your hard
drive. Dragging an application icon to the Dock adds it to that location in the
Dock.

NOTE

When the Dock expands to the full width of the screen, it automatically
decreases the scale of its icons to fit along the edge of your screen. As you
open more applications or add more icons to it, each icon appears smaller.

To make an open application a permanent member of the Dock, simply do the
following:

Locate the application’s icon if it appears in the Dock. (If
it’s not in the Dock, the application isn’t open!)

Choose the option Keep in Dock. (If the application already has a place
in the Dock, you won’t be given this option.)

After you’ve placed an application on the Dock, you can launch it by
single-clicking the icon.

NOTE

Moving an icon to the Dock doesn’t change the location of the original
file or folder. The Dock icon is merely an alias to the real file.
Unfortunately, if the original files for a docked application have been moved
since it was added to the Dock, the Dock can no longer launch that
application.

To remove an application’s icon from the Dock, make sure that the
application isn’t running and drag it out of the Dock. It disappears in a
puff of smoke (try it and see).

Getting Information from the Dock

In addition to providing easy access to commonly used applications, the Dock
also gives you feedback about the functioning of applications through their
icons.

The icon of an application that’s opening bounces in the Dock (unless
configured not to) and continues bouncing until the software is ready. Also, if
an open application needs to get your attention, its icon bounces intermittently
until you interact with it.

The Dock also signals which applications are running by displaying a small
triangle, or arrow, with their application icons. This is a good way to see
which applications are open, even if you’ve hidden them or closed all
their windows.

In addition to telling you which applications are open, Dock icons can also
give you a convenient way to close applications. Simply click and hold the icon
of an open application and choose Quit from the menu that appears.

Dock icons also offer quick access to documents open in an application. For
example, when you have multiple Finder windows open, you can view a list of
those windows by clicking and holding on the Finder icon in the Dock. From the
list, as shown in Figure
3.3, you can easily choose the one you want.

TIP

Some applications, such as System Preferences and Sherlock, take "Dock
menuing" even further. If they are open, you can choose from among all their
sections, whether those sections are open or not, by click-holding on their
icons in the Dock.

Figure 3.3 Click and
hold on the Dock icon of an open application for a list of open windows.

Some applications even have customized Dock’s icons to display
information about events occurring in the application itself. For example, the
Mail program displays the number of unread email messages in a red seal that
appears in the icon in the Dock, as shown in Figure
3.4. (Mail is covered in
detail in Chapter 17, "Using Mail.")

Figure 3.4 View the
Number of Unread Messages on Your Mail Icon in the Dock.